Interest In Library Blooming

April 13, 1998|By KENDRA MEYERS; Courant Staff Writer

HEBRON — As the skeletal frame of the grand $2.6 million makeover emerged at the Douglas Library, young Will Aubin and his brothers were giddy about the new children's section. They were also concerned about the flowers they'd planted in front of the library.

Construction workers dug up the daffodils -- now in full bloom -- that were planted a few years ago by Will, 8, and his brothers Nick, 5, and Parker, 3. The boys had visited the flowers before construction got under way. Worried about them last week, the boys hurried over to the site to pick up the bulbs placed in wheelbarrows by Gary Schmidt, construction foreman for G. Donovan Associates Inc., the Baltic-based construction company.

``They're just the easiest plants to grow,'' said Will, blissfully watching the wheelbarrows.

Will pointed out that the flowers sprouted quickly this year, just as the steel beams for the library addition had last month.

The new building, which is expected to be finished by the beginning of November, will be a three- story, 16,000-square-foot building with an elevator and staircase tower. There will be a private study room, computer stations with access to the Internet, expanded non- fiction and fiction areas, a third floor multipurpose room for children's activities and books, as well as a lower level community room that will seat about 200 people.

``[The town will] soon have enough meeting space between the town hall and the library,'' said Norman Dorval, president of the Douglas Library board of trustees. ``The library has been on the green for over 100 years. It's important to keep the green as a center of town.''

About 80 percent of the town's residents came out to vote for the $1.6 million referendum in 1996 for the expansion project. The project will combine the old 1898 structure and 1957 addition with a three-story building. The 1957 addition took five months to complete.

Before construction started in '57, borrowers were encouraged to take out a lot of books -- ``up to 10 a person,'' according to the library's written history. ``To keep them reading through this interregnum, and also to reduce the number of books that had to be moved,'' wrote Albert W. Hilding in his book ``Douglas Library of Hebron: A Centennial History 1889-1995.''

Last September library officials moved the books from 22 Main St., where construction is now in full swing, to a temporary home across the street at 31 Main St.

For the latest expansion project, Hebron received a $500,000 state grant to renovate the building. Other money is expected to come from the board of trustees and through Friends of the Douglas Library. The Friends have raised more than $10,000 in the last eight months, said Dorval.